Trade Finance Hole The U.S. Export-Import Bank votes to authorize up to $450 million in coverage to include agricultural commodities sold to Iraq. The official financing support may have become more critical as Reuters reports that commodity trade financing by banks is “drying up at a rate not seen in more than 20 years.” The report says 80 percent of global trade is intermediated by trade finance, but banks are backing away from supporting it because the business may not fit regulators’ interpretation of balanced risk. This means that either private trade finance must become more available or official credit lenders will have to intercede more. Trade Policy Shift U.S. trade legislation moves through the arcanely...
What You Need to Know Today: President Trump claimed the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran was over, as both sides accused one another of violating the terms of the agreement. Commercial vessels are increasingly steering clear of the Strait of Hormuz as security risks escalate following Iran...
Key Takeaways: The CME Group is launching new 90 percent Lean Beef and 50 percent Lean Beef futures and options contracts in July. There are five key factors that must be present in physical markets and futures contract specifications for futures contracts to become successful. The two l...
From WPI Consulting
Illuminating the value of technical research
On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.